The Trump administration’s abduction of Mahmoud Khalil has not gone unchallenged. The movement for Palestine in New York City has seen renewed energy following the news that plainclothes federal agents arrested Khalil, a negotiator for Columbia University’s Gaza solidarity encampment, in front of his pregnant wife.
The week kicked off with thousands taking to the streets to demand Khalil’s release. The protests continued throughout the week with mobilizations in the streets bolstered by student walkouts throughout the city. Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) held a high-profile occupation of the lobby of Trump Tower, demanding Khalil’s release and putting forward the slogan “Fight Nazis, Not Students.”
Despite Khalil’s denouncement of antisemitism being a matter of public record, the Far Right continues to smear him as antisemitic as a way to justify his abduction. JVP’s action was an important rejection of these false claims of antisemitism by a deeply antisemitic administration. By the end of the week, protests were still going. At Columbia University, Student Workers of Columbia held a rally denouncing the university’s attacks on the union’s right to bargain. The rally merged with student and community protesters for Khalil.
And these are just the protests in New York. There have been actions demanding Khalil’s release elsewhere, including outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Louisiana where he is detained. Activists at UCLA also held a rally demanding Khalil’s release. Along with protests, his story has drawn national attention. Major news outlets that have spent the past year giving cover to the state’s attacks on the movement for Palestine have had to cover his case and voice opposition to this attack.
While Khalil’s abduction is first and foremost a clear attack on the movement for Palestine, the implications are far greater. The Right is testing its ability to crush progressive movements and sentiments at universities. This is also an unprecedented escalation in Trump’s war on immigration. Many people who may have backed (or at least not strongly opposed) this war were told that it was just about attacking “criminals” who “enter illegally.” The administration’s attempts to make Green Cards and the rights that come with them meaningless shows just how dangerous it is to normalize the Right’s anti-immigrant agenda.
Fortunately, there is already a basis to fight back. Higher education unions have been one of the more dynamic sectors of the labor movement in recent years. These unions have the power to strengthen the student movement for Palestine at universities across the country, while also fighting the Right’s broader attacks on universities and the labor movement. The labor movement is also beginning to show its power in the thousands of workers and unionists mobilizing against the austerity being carried out by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
Meanwhile, even before Khalil’s abduction, the escalation of the war on immigrants sparked anti-ICE protests from California to the Midwest to the deep south. These protests are another important layer of opposition to the Far Right which can strengthen the demand for his release and oppose attacks on pro-Palestine activists.
The Far Right wants people to believe that resistance is futile. But thousands of people are already demonstrating a commitment to fight these attacks. By combining our fights, we can free Mahmoud Khalil and oppose all of Trump’s attacks on our movements.
